What is a literary term?

I've been given an example of a literary term. But I can't seem to find it in this sentence: They walked along, two continents of experience and feeling...?
I though it was something to do w/ the continents!?

What about this one:
The sun gazed...

down like an angry eye.
Would it be 'like an angry eye', because the sun doesn't have an eye?

the first one is a hyperbole b/c its an exacturation
the second one is personification b/c its giving the sun a human trait.

It's metaphor and simile.

The metaphor is in the first one- the people are being likened to continents, but like or as are not used.

The second one is simile- like is used to liken the sun to an eye.

The second one is not quite personification, because it uses the term 'like'. If any phrase compares something to something else it is a similie.

For example:

She smiled at me, like a cat playing with a mouse - the use of the word like or as compare it directly to something else. It's saying it's similar to something else, hence the term similie.

Metaphor is saying something *is* something else, for example:

She smiled at me, a cat playing with a mouse - this sentence makes it sound like she *is* the cat, rather than she is *like* the cat.

Personification is giving an inanimate object human qualities. For example:

The tree reached out, its fingers scratching at the air -we know a tree has branches rather than fingers, but saying that they are fingers rather than branches gives the object (in this case a tree) human qualities.

Make sense?